2 - The Dahomean economy, 1640–1890

Summary

THE MYTHIC ERA, TO 1660

By the late seventeenth century Dahomey had become populous, had developed sizeable states, and had an economic organization which can be characterized as including familial and commodity exchange modes of production, with a mercantile system linking it to other economies. In Dahomey and throughout the Bight of Benin, the major ethnic groups were well established in their present positions: such migrations of families and ethnic groups as took place subsequently have done little to change the geographical distribution of Aja–Ewe, Yoruba, Voltaic and other groups. The patrilineal social structure of the seventeenth century was that of succeeding centuries. The kingdoms of Hueda, Ardra and Oyo were the largest and best known, but European observers knew many smaller kingdoms and noted that all the Aja peoples had a common political structure, though with variations in scale. The agricultural economy relied on fairly intensive land use, with yams and maize as staples. Millet, sorghum, beans and sweet potatoes were also cultivated, along with oil palms, coconuts, oranges, pineapples and other fruits. Fishing occupied a significant minority of the population, and domestic animals included poultry, goats, sheep and cattle. The producers were tied together through a network of local markets, and used cowries as currency. The local markets were tied to more distant regions through caravans on the land and through large canoes on the lagoons and along the coast.In sum, seventeenth-century society resembled nineteenth- or even twentiethcentury society in many details.